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Hello!

Are you ready to create locked letters? Explore our supplies page at letterlocking.org/tools-and-materials and discover everything you need to begin your letterlocking journey! We provide links to suppliers who make and sell paper, quills, inks, sealing wax, and tools. 

Thank you for watching our videos.

Alt text for image:
Two hands hold a locked letterpacket over a desk. A lit candle, sticks of sealing wax, scissors, seal stamps, a needle and thread, an awl, letterpackets, and an opened letter cover the desktop surface.

Drawing by Yasmeen Alfaqeeh and Jana Dambrogio. Hands modeled after Dr. Sheree M. Watson, MD. Check out Dr. Watson demonstrating letterlocking foundational folds in Letterlocking: Josephine Baker’s letter to Simone Dauthieu, Monaco (1971) (UH0229)  https://youtu.be/K0MPJnF84Hc .

@letterlocking  #letterlocking   #DIY 

We are thrilled to announce that a new video will premiere tonight at 11:45 PM EST.

In just 44 days, you can read all about this highly secure sword-shaped lock in our upcoming book, "Letterlocking: the Hidden History of the Letter."

To pre-order "Letterlocking" click here:  https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049276/letterlocking/ 

We hope you enjoy this latest video and the book. Thank you for your ongoing support over the years!

Be sure to follow us on social media
@Letterlocking
@MITPress
And check out MIT Press on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMITPress 

Hello, Letterlocking channel subscribers!

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow, January 4th, 2025, marks two months until the release of our first book, *Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter*.

To celebrate, we'll premiere two videos:
one at midnight EST ( https://youtu.be/q48UYTLfeec )
and another at 5 AM EST ( https://youtu.be/X7Bot22RaQc ).

Enjoy the videos! 

Click here for Letterlocking Pre-order ( https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049276/letterlocking/) .

MIT Press on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMITPress 

Follow us on social media
@Letterlocking
@MITPress

We hope you love the book. Thank you for all your support over the years. There are so many more letterlocking resources coming your way. Stay tuned.

Image Alt text
An image of a book cover. A diamond-shaped letterpacket has handwriting and red sealing wax on the two triangular flaps protruding into the foreground. The book title appears above the partially opened letterpacket, and the author names appear below.

Image citation information
UH number: UH0051
Original: Unknown to Monsieur Suijthoff, France (ca. 1689–1706). Brienne Collection, Sound & Vision The Hague, DB-0833.
Model: MIT Libraries, Unlocking History Research Group archive, MC0760, Box 21.
Video:  https://youtu.be/_9wP8TcuYhU 

New updated Jane Austen video premiering in three minutes!  https://youtu.be/WHO658Plwr0 

Surprise premiere later today! An updated demonstration showing how Jane Austen folded her letter to Cassandra is coming later today, April 13, 2024! Premiering later today: "Corrected folding sequence: Jane Austen's roll-folded locked letter to Cassandra [Bath] May 17 [1799]"! After revisiting Jane Austen's original manuscript at Houghton Library, we found that Jane Austen used a very cool folding sequence to lock her letter, different from the one we originally demonstrated in our video posted on January 17, 2022 (see  https://youtu.be/U3eAEwz35QE ). Stay tuned. We can detect this subtle clue to the folding sequence if we know where to look on the original letter substrate: the clues are in the creases.  #Preservethefolds   #Creasesdontlie . 

An upcoming video premiere: Henri Christophe's locked letter to Toussaint Louverture.  https://youtu.be/iNMoq28X2sQ 

Another video demonstrating distinctive letterlocking style used by Miss Phillis Wheatley Peters to her dear friend Obour Tanner Collins! Premiering soon:  https://youtu.be/UHaOED_cBDs 

Thanks to Linda J. Evans, Sheree Watson, MD, and Dr. Walter O. Evans for collaborating with us on this instructional video featuring one of Phillis Wheatley Peter’s letterlocking techniques. Video premiered yesterday 3 November 2023. Thank you from your Unlocking History Research group friends. Thanks to the Massachusetts Historical Society for allowing us to examine the original letters! The YouTube URL for this video is  https://youtu.be/JeMgvbhdK6Y 

Happy Birthday to Walter O. Evans, MD! We hope you enjoy your day. Thanks to Linda J. Evans and you for collaborating with us on this instructional video featuring one of Ira Aldridge's letterlocking techniques. Video premiering at midnight, 19 February 2023. Thank you from your Unlocking History Research group friends.  https://youtu.be/M_m76DV88RU   

Check out our newest playlist:  https://bit.ly/3tDforu 
This playlist features three rare examples of letterlocking found in the Boncompagni Ludovisi archive (Villa Aurora). The archive includes one of the only known extant examples in the world of the "removable lock" letterlocking technique. The technique was used in correspondence by Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI, and other French regents. Two other examples show letterlocking techniques used by Empress Maria Theresa and the Kings of Spain in the 18th-century. These locked letters are rare because they contain high percentages of their locking mechanisms and letterlocking manipulations. 

Thank you to HRH Princess Rita and the late HRH Prince Nicolò for providing our Unlocking History Research team members with access to their family's private archive. We would not have known the "removable lock" existed without access to their collections.

Image: Top left letter is the only known intact removable lock from Marie Antoinette. The letter is part of a cache of 25 letters from Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI HRH Princess Rita found in a tin chest in 2010. Thank you also to Dr. T. Corey Brennan for encouraging us to consult this collection and his efforts to preserve the distinctive collections that are the Boncampangi Ludovisi Villa Aurora estate.  Image permission courtesy of The Boncompagni Ludovisi archive (Villa Aurora).

Alt text: Four opened handwritten letters with paper locks laying on some of the substrates.